KAI VEYLAN WOKE UP WITH A SHRIEK.
The noise tore from his mouth before he even realized it, before he even remembered what happened. He was writhing on his back when the straps that held him down creaked, and a wave of pain shot across his chest.
Red light began flashing overhead.
**WARNING. WARNING. WARNING.**
The pod lurched violently. The hull scraped against something as a tearing sound of metal echoed through the pod. Then, a low vibration shook the pod, like an earthquake, and vibrated through his bones. As Kai sucked in a jagged breath -- and nearly choked on the air in his lungs that felt like winter itself, cold and thin and burning.
"what...the hell..."
His voice was odd. Too loud. Too close.
Kai tried to open his eyes.
He wasn't on a plane.
The area around him was enclosed and cylindrical, the metal walls curved inward, scarred and battered. A broken display flickered in front of him with lines of alien writing that ran together with warning symbols he did not know but somehow understood represented disaster.
Outside his window, the sky looked different.
Not blue.
Not black.
Purple.
There was so much purple in the distance, swirling in currents that moved slowly under reality's skin like slow-moving lightning. There was no sun. No familiar stars -- only little points of light that changed shape when he looked at them.
His heart beat rapidly against his ribs.
"This isn't earth," kai whispered.
The pod responded with another ear-shattering alarm.
**POWER FAILURE — LIFE SUPPORT CRITICAL**
The restraints let go with a hiss. Gravity pulled sideways, and the pod spun violently as the alarms overlapped while system after system failed. kai clutched the sides as the viewport filled with motionless purple void.
And then the purple went away.
Black took its place.
Something enormous was moving below him.
The pod dropped down.
Impact occurred like the end of the world.
Metal screamed as the pod slammed into the ground and slid violently across a surface that felt almost solid. kai was thrown forward and a sharp pain shot through the rear of his eyes as he hit the harness frame with his forehead.
The alarms fell silent.
There was silence.
Kai lay still, breathing heavily, waiting for fire, or pressure loss, or the biting sensation of a vacuum.
Nothing happened.
Shaking his hands, kai worked at the manual release. The door resisted him, and then finally yielded with a grinding shriek. Cold air poured into the pod -- pure, clean, slightly metallic.
Kai got up and crawled out.
He stood on a massive black surface that stretched to infinity. It wasn't rock. It wasn't metal. Whatever this substance was, it absorbed light; only tiny glows of faint purple pulses showed, like a distant heartbeat.
He rotated in a slow circle.
The pod rested on a ship.
Massive one.
The hull rose on each side, receding into the blackness. Towering spires, recessed ports, large closed openings that were capable of swallowing skyscrapers protruded from every angle. Everything was spotless. Untouched. Unharmed.
Abandoned.
"It has been kept," kai said softly, his voice barely audible.
That thought unsettled him more than the void.
Ahead of him, a large, smooth entrance beckoned, with softly lit edges. Past it, darkness awaited.
The purple sky swirled above, a seemingly endless hostile sea.
Kai chose the ship.
As he entered the ship, the interior lighted, warm white light radiating along the floor. The air was calm. Warm. Safe.
Too safe.
The corridors were enormous, ceilings lost in the shadows, walls cut with unusual geometry. No dust. No decay. No evidence of living organisms-- yet nothing here felt dead.
Someone—or something—is keeping this ship alive.
The ship led Kai.
Not directly. Not aggressively. But the passage ways opened silently as he approached them, and Kai followed until he entered an enormous space.
The bridge.
Screens covered nearly the entire back wall of the bridge, displaying the purple void beyond. Consoles curved inward, dark and idle. At the center sat a single chair.
The Captain's chair.
It was hand-crafted rather than manufactured, etched with symbols that would have caused his eyes to ache if he looked at them too closely. It faced the void, waiting.
"This is crazy," kai whispered.
Anyway, his legs carried him to the chair.
The moment he sat down, the ship woke up.
Light erupted on the bridge. Holographic interfaces exploded into existence, geometric shapes filled the air. The consoles buzzed as the ship's systems activated.
Something pushed against his mind.
Not strongly.
Not lightly.
Present.
A voice spoke in his mind—clear, emotionless.
**Welcome, Captain.**
Kai gasped, grasping the arms of the chair.
"who—what—"
**integration starting.**
The chair locked.
Severe pain exploded in the back of his eyes.
This was not a headache. This was as if someone had ignited his thoughts, as if something was reaching into his brain and rewriting him from the inside out. Kai screamed, the sound ripped raw from his throat as an invisible force pinned him in place.
"stop—"
Light flooded his vision.
Pictures assaulted him—too many, too fast, making no sense without context.
A world intact and complete.
A war that destroyed reality.
The five major continents drifted apart and were swallowed by the boundless purple sea.
Voices boomed, layered and disjoined. Data and memories crashed against his thoughts, but they never coalesced. Knowledge touched him, but it never became a part of him.
The ship.
The sea.
The lands.
The pain increased. His body convulsed as his nerves screamed, as something dug deeper into his brain.
**Creating neural link.**
Kai's scream cracked into a sob. His vision narrowed. His heart skipped erratically, and then stopped.
The agony ceased.
Not completely.
Pausing.
The voice came again, closer.
**warning.**
Kai's lips trembled. "Wait," he rasped. "what do you mean—"
**Restructuring your brain may result in temporary death.**
His heart leapt.
"What—"
The lights flickered.
The pressure built once more.
Kai felt his heartbeat cease.
Everything became blackness.